
5
The Third Level
And that was that. I left the same way I came,
I suppose. Next day, during lunch hour, I drew
three hundred dollars out of the bank, nearly
all we had, and bought old-style currency (that
really worried my psychiatrist friend). You can
buy old money at almost any coin dealer’s, but
you have to pay a premium. My three hundred
dollars bought less than two hundred in old-style
bills, but I didn’t care; eggs were thirteen cents
a dozen in 1894.
But I’ve never again found the corridor that
leads to the third level at Grand Central Station,
although I’ve tried often enough.
Louisa was pretty worried when I told her all this, and didn’t
want me to look for the third level any more, and after a while I
stopped; I went back to my stamps. But now we’re both looking,
every weekend, because now we have proof that the third level is
still there. My friend Sam Weiner disappeared! Nobody knew where,
but I sort of suspected because Sam’s a city boy, and I used to tell
him about Galesburg — I went to school there — and he always
said he liked the sound of the place. And that’s where he is, all
right. In 1894.
Because one night, fussing with my stamp collection, I found —
Well, do you know what a first-day cover is? When a new stamp is
issued, stamp collectors buy some and use them to mail envelopes
to themselves on the very first day of sale; and the postmark proves
the date. The envelope is called a first-day cover. They’re never
opened; you just put blank paper in the envelope.
That night, among my oldest first-day covers, I found one that
shouldn’t have been there. But there it was. It was there because
someone had mailed it to my grandfather at his home in Galesburg;
that’s what the address on the envelope said. And it had been there
since July 18, 1894 — the postmark showed that — yet I didn’t
remember it at all. The stamp was a six-cent, dull brown, with a
picture of President Garfield. Naturally, when the envelope came to
Granddad in the mail, it went right into his collection and stayed
there — till I took it out and opened it.
Would Charley ever
go back to the ticket-
counter on the third
level to buy tickets
to Galesburg for
himself and
his wife?
Chap 1.indd 5 12/16/2024 1:42:11 PM